[GLLUG] Trickle logs to a DVD-R disk?

[Marr]

On Friday 24 August 2007 7:09am, Lachniet, Mark wrote:
> Anyone know of a good way to set up a Linux box so that you can copy your
> logs in real-time (or near to it) to a DVD-R that is inserted in the box? 
> I'd like to have a more permanent form of logging so that if the HD dies or
> gets hacked, there is a backup that went to the DVD burner in a more
> permanent form.

Hi Mark,

I'd look into packet-writing (to optical media, using the UDF filesystem). 
Google the following terms:

   +"packet writing" +linux +dvd

I think you'll find some useful information there.

If you've installed the Linux kernel documentation, you might also have a file 
like this on your system:

   /usr/src/linux-2.6.17.13/Documentation/cdrom/packet-writing.txt

(That's from my Slackware 11.0 installation.)

Some of the older documentation seems to imply that only -RW media (and 
DVD-RAM but who uses that anyway?) are packet-writable, but I think -R media 
can be used too, these days. I could be wrong, though.

I haven't done any packet writing in quite a while, so I don't know the 
current state of affairs, but that's essentially what you're looking for. 
Otherwise, you're forced to do "multi-session", which is incredibly wasteful 
for short writes to optical media, which is what I think you're discussing 
(assuming you don't aggregate the log data on hard disk drive and then write 
it to optical media in larger chunks).

Good luck!  And please keep us posted on what you find (if anything) that 
works -- I'd be very interested to eventually hear your results.

Bill Marr